Frequently Asked Questions

Our vessels load directly from the sands of Ka’anapali Beach, not at a dock or harbor. This means you will need to walk down into the wet sand and into the water a few steps before reaching our dropdown staircase to board our boats. We do not recommend our trips for those with mobility issues or anyone who may have trouble walking on their own/unassisted. In certain circumstances, we will change our boarding location due to weather/beach conditions if needed. If there is a change in boarding location, each guest will be notified using the phone number and email provided during the booking process. Permits to load from Lahaina Harbor or other locations are limited, and we cannot guarantee the ability to change locations if poor beach loading conditions arise. ⛵️

Yes. You can expect to get wet from about the knees down, but that’s all part of the fun! We recommend wearing beach attire, shorts, or dresses that can be held above the water line during the loading and unloading process. You are welcome to bring bags aboard, and we recommend placing any valuable electronics inside a bag instead of your pockets just to be safe 💦

All trips are barefoot, we will collect your shoes during the boarding process. We recommend wearing flip-flops or sandals, as your footwear will be placed together in a bin for storage during the trip. Shoes worn for medical purposes may stay on, just keep in mind they will get wet and sandy. ❌👠

Check in at our “Sea Maui” kiosk located between Leilani’s and Hula Grill along the beach walk at Whaler’s Village Shopping Center. Here is a link to our location on GOOGLE MAPS. If you’re driving, we do validate parking up to 4 hours for the Whaler’s Village parking structure. Just bring your ticket and present that at CHECK IN so we can validate that for you. We do not have the ability to validate parking after our sunset trips return. PLEASE be sure to present your ticket before departure. Any additional parking fees beyond 4 hours will be the responsibility of the guest. Mahalo! 🚙🎫

Just like in a restaurant, we do require groups of 12 or more to pay an automatic gratuity to the crew. This 15% tip is based off of the total party ticket price and will be added at the time of booking. Please call (808) SEA-MAUI to book 12 or more passengers, as our online booking system will only allow up to 11 pax per trip. Parties exceeding more than half of a vessel’s capacity will need to privately charter the boat. This is out of respect for other guests on board. Mahalo!

Yes. In order to participate in our snorkeling activities, we do require that our guests can swim on their own. You don’t have to be a strong swimmer as we do have many flotation options available to assist, however you must have some swimming ability to snorkel. All of our snorkel locations are offshore, where the boats will tie up to a mooring or drop anchor. These locations are anywhere from 25ft-40ft deep, so you will not be able to touch bottom at any point during your snorkel trip. 🏊‍♀️

Yes. We include all the necessary gear you will need for snorkeling including masks, snorkels, fins, and flotation devices. We do not provide prescription masks or masks that fit over eyeglasses, we recommend visiting The Snorkel Store for rental options (mention Sea Maui for a discount 🤙🏾). We carry junior size fins for small kids all the way up to size 15 for adults. For flotation, we have pool noodles, inflatable snorkel life vests, kids water wings, and boogie boards. If you prefer that your small child wear a form fitting swim vest, we recommend you bring your own, as the many different sizing options do not allow us to stock them on board. Due to safety concerns, we do not allow full face snorkel masks. We prioritize the safety and well-being of all participants. Thank you for your understanding.

We operate whale watching trips from Dec 15th – April 14th. Prime time for whales is typically February, but we do still see whales daily from Dec-April. All of our half day snorkels and sunset trips include whale watching during this time. We also offer 3 “whale watching only” tours at 8am, 11am and 2pm daily.🐋

Obviously, weather plays a major factor in the operation of our vessels and the overall enjoyment of our trips. Although we are lucky to have the best weather on the planet, certain days weather, ocean conditions or beach conditions may force us to cancel. Our captains and the entire Ka’anapali fleet are constantly monitoring for rain, wind, waves, swell, and beach conditions. Some days the weather may look perfect, but the surf or beach conditions may be too dangerous to safely load passengers from the sand or let passengers in the water at our snorkel locations. We do not take cancellations lightly and realize your time on Maui is valuable. We always do our very best to balance these decisions and try to make these calls as early as possible so that our guests can make other plans. Of course, if we do cancel your trip, we will offer the option of rescheduling or a full refund will be issued. Reservations made through 3rd party resellers may take longer to refund, we always advise that you double-check with your booking agent to ensure they’ve processed the refund on their end after Sea Maui notifies them of the cancellation. If you are concerned with weather conditions at any time, please feel free to call us at (808) SEA-MAUI. Mahalo! 💨 🌧 🌊

Typically, most healthy pregnant women will not have any issues on our sailing or snorkeling trips. We do always advise that you clear your activities and plans with your doctor before traveling. Although our snorkel locations are typically very calm, certain days you may be required to swim against a current and/or swim to reach the best snorkeling area, etc. We do offer many options for flotation and have multiple crew members in the water to assist if necessary. 🤰

We do not advise guests with heart or pulmonary conditions to partake in snorkeling. The activity of snorkeling can increase heart rate and make breathing more difficult than usual. This combination can create a very dangerous situation while at sea and far away from any help of EMS or a Doctor. Although every member of our staff is lifeguard/CPR certified, we certainly would prefer to only use those skills in a worse case scenario. Please read our liability waiver before deciding on any trip. We are more than happy to refund any guest not comfortable with their activity at any time. If you have ANY concerns while on board, please speak with the Captain, and they will help make an educated decision about partaking in our activities with you. We want you to have fun! But your health and safety is always our main priority. Sea Maui staff reserves the right to refuse any activity of a guest at any time. ❤️

Guests with mobility issues are strongly urged to consider a boat tour that departs from a harbor or dock. With our unpredictable beach loading conditions, guests will need to be able to make quick movements and react to changing shore break conditions. If a guest is unable to walk onto the vessel unassisted, we may need to refuse boarding. Of course, we will process a full refund and help with booking a better option. Due to the unique operation of our vessels and the beach loading process, we are unable to accommodate wheelchair passengers on our trips. There are many great options from Lahaina Harbor and Maalaea Harbor that can accommodate guests with mobility issues. Mahalo! 🧑🏼‍🦼

Sea sickness is real, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise 😂. Unfortunately, we do run across the random passenger that will experience this uncomfortable condition during our trips. Even though catamarans have 2 hulls and are much more stable than monohull boats, we do tend to see some sea sickness here and there. A lot of factors go into what “we think” causes sea sickness, but one remedy almost always works, Dramamine! Motion sickness pills work wonders, BUT you cannot wait until you feel sick to take them, by then it’s too late. We recommend, if you are prone to sea sickness and still want to battle it out, take your motion sickness pill BEFORE getting on board. Just like any other pill, it takes some time to work. Of course, we recommend speaking with your doctor before taking any type of drug, especially if you are taking any other type of medication. We also recommend the non-drowsy versions because we’d like you to be awake to experience the awesomeness of Maui!

Other preparations to avoid sea sickness include staying hydrated before the trip (meaning WATER not 🍺😂), taking your sunglasses OFF, keeping your eyes on land, fresh air, and not going down below in the bathroom or hull of the boat (this is the worst place to be). If you begin to feel ill on a trip, please let a crew member know right away, we can help! Don’t worry about it too much, it’s not an everyday occurrence by any means. We don’t want to discourage you if you’re prone to sea sickness, many people are and still get out there with no issues! Preparation is key and anything we can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask. 🤢

Yes! We encourage everyone to view our liability waiver before booking. You can see it online by clicking HERE. 📝

No problem! We do require a 48-hour notice for a full refund. If you need to cancel for any reason, regardless of timeframe, please call us at (808) SEA-MAUI so we can go over options with you. Many times we are able to resell the seats, cancel the catering that was ordered for your trip, etc. If a reservation is not cancelled and a guest “no shows” we will not be able to offer any type of refund. We will do our best to work out a solution! We don’t enjoy keeping a payment from a guest that didn’t get to experience a trip with us, but we also don’t like to lose money either. We’re very fair and understanding, we realize that plans change. Please let us know as soon as possible so we can help you salvage your payment. 💰 🤙🏾

Direct sales with payments collected by Sea Maui are refunded immediately but typically take anywhere from 3-5 business days to hit your bank, certain banks may take longer. If you haven’t seen your refund after 7 days, please feel free to give us a call and we can investigate further. Our fancy system shows up-to-the-minute info for debits that have been submitted and when they are successfully accepted by your bank.

Payments that have been collected from a 3rd party seller may take longer to process, depending on the agency used. All of our re-sellers are extremely reputable companies, but some may experience a slight delay in processing refunds, especially on days with bad weather when they are processing lots of cancellations in large volumes. If your trip was refunded through your hotel, we always advise double-checking your statement before check out. We can still assist if you haven’t seen your refund from a 3rd party agent, just give us a call, and we will be happy to reach out to their support staff to investigate.

We can be reached anytime via email at info@seamaui.com, or from 7:30a-8p HST at (808) SEA-MAUI. You may also text us through this website from the bottom right-hand corner with any inquiries, anytime! 🤙🏾